Don Basile

investorin San Francisco, California

Don Basile

investorin San Francisco, California

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Don Basile has spent more than 20 years immersed in the tech sector, working with a wide range of firms in hardware, software, IT, telecommunications, healthcare and private equity. First in his class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Basile earned a BS in electrical engineering before joining Bell Labs as a data networking engineer. In the late 80s, Basile moved out to Palo Alto and completed both his MS and PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford, after which he accepted an offer to become a vice president of Lenfest Capital, a subsidiary of Lenfest Media Group. Over the next four years, Basile pursued various investment opportunities in at Lenfest, notably CAM Systems, where he served as president.

Following successful stints as RemarQ Communities’ director of operations and partnerships and Netfish’s senior director, Don Basile took on responsibilities as a managing director and vice president of Raza Foundries, a venture capital firm founded by Atiq Raza. From 2000 through 2003, Basile identified and made investments in the then-emerging broadband communications space, including IntruVert Networks and Lambda OpticalSystems.

After a period consulting with Oak Investment Partners, Basile undertook concurrent roles as a vice president at UnitedHealth Group and chairman of Fusion-io. In 2008, Basile left UnitedHealth and assumed additional responsibilities as CEO of Fusion-io (later acquired by SanDisk), guiding the data storage company through its successful $19 million Series A funding round within one year.

Basile became CEO of Violin Memory in 2009 and ushered in an unprecedented period of growth for the early-stage data storage startup. From a valuation of $0, Basile positioned Violin for an $800 million valuation in just over three years, closing four funding rounds in the process. He ultimately brought the company public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013, where it is traded under the symbol “VMEM”.

Today, Don Basile is an investor at a Stealth Mode Mobile Startup. Basile also invests in the development of products that use graphene, a flexible nanomaterial with considerable potential for real-world applications.